What causes liver pain? Causes of liver pain

Liver pain is quite common in life, but many people don’t know what liver pain is. Generally speaking, this situation may be related to some liver diseases. It is recommended to check and treat early, because liver cancer can also cause liver pain, which is more common at night.

1. Symptoms and characteristics of liver pain caused by liver cancer:

Liver pain caused by liver cancer is often due to rapid tumor growth that increases the tension of the liver capsule, or liver cancer infiltration of the liver capsule. It is often the first symptom of mid-to-late stage liver cancer. Discomfort in the right upper abdomen may occur before liver pain. The pain is mostly located in the "right heart" or right hypochondrium, and is mostly intermittent or continuous dull pain or stabbing pain. The pain in the liver area is sometimes mild and sometimes severe, and occasionally it may ease on its own or even disappear within a period of time. Pain in the liver area caused by liver cancer is more common at night.

2. Symptoms and characteristics of liver pain caused by cirrhosis:

Many patients with mild cirrhosis have no symptoms, do not feel pain in the liver area, and appear healthy for many years. Symptomatic patients may experience weakness, loss of appetite, nausea, and weight loss, along with an enlarged liver. Some patients with cirrhosis may experience liver pain, which is mostly a dull pain in the liver area. Therefore, liver pain should not be the main manifestation of cirrhosis. If pain occurs in the liver area, it may be caused by other reasons.

3. Discomfort and pain in the liver area caused by hepatitis:

Hepatitis has many symptoms, including liver pain. Liver pain in the acute phase of hepatitis is caused by a translucent "liver capsule" covering the liver, which is covered with abundant sensory nerve endings. During the acute stage of hepatitis, the cells in the liver have varying degrees of inflammatory swelling, and the entire liver swells, causing the entire capsule to become tight, affecting the sensory nerve endings on the capsule and causing pain.

After acute hepatitis is cured or turns into chronic, you will still feel discomfort and pain in the liver area. This is because during an acute attack of hepatitis, in addition to inflammatory lesions in liver cells, the extrahepatic capsule is also congested and edematous, and fluid overflows. The exudate contains more cellulose, which often adheres to adjacent tissues such as the stomach, intestines, peritoneum, and diaphragm. As the disease progresses, the swelling of the liver disappears, but adhesions may still exist. In very rare patients, when the liver shrinks, the adhesion tissue is pulled tighter, so that when people are physically active, constipated, have a full meal, or when other body position changes affect the movement of the diaphragm, the liver and surrounding tissues will be pulled to varying degrees through nearby organs, causing traction pain, tingling or dull pain.